A Beautiful Beast for Christmas

She knew what it was then and Khensa sat wondering why Debbie was laughing quietly. When she tilted her head, Debbie laughed even more.

"When I was a little girl," she said, "Just a little kid of maybe six or almost seven, we were on a pretty barren rock, though it had at least a little bit of a settlement to it. I guess you wouldn't know it to look at me now, but back then, my hair was just about white. That's just the way that I was born. The UV on that world was murderously high and I guess that I spent most of my childhood when I was outside in a suit with a ton of UV block cream all over my face.

Life was pretty lonely for me there and I was a little unhappy most of the time as I recall it.

My parents were botanists, and sometimes they worked with other scientists. For a long time, they worked with a couple who were both geologists which specialized in soil formations and the sort of plant life that might be supported there.

I guess that it was a big thing back on Earth at one time, but there are many different kinds of humans, Khensa. I don't know if you're aware of that at all."

The Anubian nodded, "I had not considered it, but I do know that you are right. I have seen pictures of many people who looked very different to each other. My kind has differences, but not as broad as yours."

Debbie nodded, "I think that it was a big deal once, but now they don't much care about that. Anyway, the geologists had a daughter too and we were just at about the same age. We must have looked like quite a set; a little black girl with really dark skin and then there was me, a pasty white kid with snow-white hair.

Joni and I were best friends," she chuckled, "probably because we were each other's only friend, but we loved each other and we were inseparable. We ate over at each other's house and we slept over at each other's house all the time from about six or seven all the way until we were thirteen. Joni's parents left then to work on another world and I never saw her again."

She looked over at Khensa and she laughed a little, "Sitting here with you, I kept getting the most comfortable feeling and I couldn't place it. I guess it just took me a while, but I'm sure now that I've transferred that feeling from my memories of Joni to you, Khensa."

She pushed Khensa's coffee across the table to her, "Do you want to hear what I'm running from?"

She told it all -- though she never knew quite where she'd found the courage for it. When Khensa heard that there had been one of her kind involved, Debbie asked her to wait until she was finished telling everything.

"So I'm pretty sure that I want to leave here but I think it'll take me about six months. I can show you my ship, and I do have a bit of room in it. It was made for a couple of people to travel in with just a little comfort -- like you can really live in it, though it's always a little cramped when there are two of you.

It's not fast, since it wasn't meant to be more than a moving vacation home, but it does have cryo equipment.

Though you might not need to live there after all. I remember the name of that male that day at the impound. Is your cousin's name Tesem?"

Khensa almost dropped her cup and she looked a little embarrassed for a moment as she laughingly apologized.

Debbie grinned, "You know that's the first time that I've seen just a hint of a crack in that perfect, polished exterior, Khensa. I'd almost say not to worry about it, since as our expression goes; it just shows that you're human. Maybe you ought to be concerned."

"I shouldn't have gotten so easily rattled," Khensa grinned, "Tesem is not an uncommon name back home. He was tall?"

Debbie smiled, "Oh yeah. I guessed he was over six feet and when he stood up to yell at me for what I did, I think that he must have been six-three, six-four or so, It's hard to tell from a human's point of view. You guys stand differently on two legs to us, and depending on the way that you hold your ankles, your height can vary a bit.

So yeah, he was tall and by his fur and all, he could have been your brother."

Khensa thought back, "When I knew him, he was very fit and muscular. It went with his work to be like that."

She looked over at Debbie again, who said nothing this time, only nodding with a grin.

Khensa wondered how much difficulty a human might have at telling one of her kind from the next. "He was good to look at?"

Debbie's face fell from where she rested her chin on her hand to land with her forehead on her arm as she chuckled for a moment. She lifted her head then as she tried for a little control.

"Try to imagine what I was risking, wanting to do what I told you. It was wrong, Khensa, very wrong, but I'd done it before with males who were good to look at.

But I'd never seen anyone like him in my life before -- and I have seen Anubians around here at times.

I wanted him, Khensa. I don't know how I managed to live through my shifts while he was there before that day. I used to stare at the monitor at him and when that wasn't good enough because his head hung down from the sedative, I used to go there and stare at him through the bars as he slept."

She looked over and saw that Khensa was listening, so she held up her index finger for a long moment to emphasize it.

"For hours, Khensa. I stared at him for hours at a time.

I know that I'm pretty," she said. "But I also know that I'm not beautiful like you are. I also know that if it were even a little possible, I'd have loved to try to have at least some sort of relationship with him. Hell, I think that I would have been at least a little happy to have someone like him for a friend."

She'd been looking down at the tabletop for a few seconds by then.

She looked up and sighed, "But what I would have loved to have was the possibility to get to know him really well."

She picked up her cup to take a sip and Khensa watched Debbie's eyebrows rise as she spoke into the cup for a moment, "I think that I'd have killed to have the chance to have the love of a male like that."

She set her cup down, "Does that answer your question?"

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They were walking together to the camper part of the huge cavern which was the general parking hangar at the port. Both of them were cold there, but at least the wind wasn't more than something which howled to them angrily from a little far away and the snow couldn't reach them where they were. There was no attempt made to heat the gigantic cave -- since there was that opening to the outside, but at least the air was still and not threatening to take your breath from you.

Actually, it was a fair bit warmer in the cavern, being closer to the heat of the core in a few spots. But that difference to the way that a person felt as they walked along the paths and boardwalks was not much more than a matter of numbers.

Khensa was worried for Debbie all the same. To her, most of the insides of the port were a little too warm. Here, it was far too cold for her and she had her coat done up all the way. Debbie wore only a light jacket.

"I will be lucky to get you to my craft before you catch this pneumonia sickness, Deborah," she grumbled a little as they walked.

"Don't worry about me," the human said through her teeth, "I'll be fine -- that is, if your ship is closer than the next hundred yards."

"I do worry a little," Khensa said in the same tone.

Debbie stopped then and she looked over, "Why?"

Khensa shrugged, "It is strange for one like me and I admit it, but I care suddenly, so I worry. Maybe it is because this Christmas time is coming. I really cannot say. I think that I hope for your friendship."

Debbie caught herself staring, though Khensa didn't see it. She opened her coat and before her companion could do anything, she pulled as much of it around Debbie as she could and then she pulled her along to get going, "I have fur."

The inside of the craft didn't feel very much warmer than it was outside, though it really was. It was only in an idle setting as far as heat went to save the fuel cells when Khensa wasn't there. As soon as they were inside, she almost forced Debbie to sit on the bed at the rear of the compartment as she wrapped her in some furs. When she was certain that Debbie was alright for the moment, she stepped forward and lit off an auxiliary power unit as well as cranking the one which ran off the port's power hook up.

In only moments, they couldn't see their breath anymore though it would take a little while before anything that they touched in there didn't feel cold. Khensa asked Debbie about a hot cup of tea and Debbie looked up, surprised.

"I did say that some human things have made their transference to our culture," she smiled, "the love of coffee and tea are two others."

As the small microwave oven churned, she looked for a picture tablet and she quickly set up a little slide show for the human girl before she handed it over and indicated which button cycled the pictures, "Tell me which of these males is Tesem."

Debbie had a little trouble, since her frostbitten fingers weren't being very cooperative right then, but by the time that they settled in next to each other sipping their tea, Khensa was a little astounded.

Debbie had found all of the pictures of Tesem by then. "He's younger in all of these, but I'm sure that's him. I can't know for sure, since it's been a few weeks, but I'm almost certain that he's still here someplace.

He made a lot of noise about going to the Anubian embassy here to complain about what I did. I kind of wonder why nothing's come of it."

Khensa held up two fingers, "One: there is no Anubian embassy on Nanworth. Tesem must know that. I think that it was all just noise to bluff by and two: maybe he liked what you did, but did not want to appear to approve, since by what you have said, he has this small female for him now."

"He did more than bluff and appear not to approve," Debbie said, "I doubt that he liked it -- since he almost smashed my skull against the bars before he left."

Khensa looked outside through the windscreen at the way that the wind had seemed to have shifted a little so that now there was the thinnest dusting of snow over the nose of the craft. "I am thinking once more of that Christmas long ago."

Debbie could barely say that she knew Khensa very much at all, but she had a thought then.

"Apparently, the want to have at least a little bit of the Christmas feeling is a little strong in some humans, Khensa. Robby's parents had both been born on Earth and had grown up there. Where we were, it was almost always hot, dry and dusty."

Khensa looked over with a little smile, pleased to have her thoughts interrupted a little bit, "What was it like when it wasn't like that?"

Debbie shrugged, "Then it was cold, dry and dusty. On Earth in some places where the climate allows for winter, human children wait for a really good snowfall, like where there's maybe the width of an adult hand or more out on the ground. If it's just a little wet, it's sticky then and we say that it's packing snow. You can make really good snowballs out of it to throw at your friends.

They start with a big snowball and roll it around until it becomes a really big one. They do that three times most often to make three different sized balls and then they stack them up from biggest to smallest. With a few little things and your imagination, you can make a snowman or snowwoman. It's a lot of fun."

"How can you tell one from the other?" Khensa asked.

Debbie rolled her eyes and nudged one of Khensa's breasts very gently through her top with her fingertips.

"Oh," the Anubian said thoughtfully, "so then they require five snowballs?"

"Something like that," Debbie smiled, "but if you let the boys near her they always pack more on until she becomes a snowMAMMA," she said with a little laugh, "I've even heard that they fall over."

"Anyway, before Robby had been born, when they were getting ready to leave, his father bought a few aerosol cans of fake snow. It was supposed to be used against the glass of a window to make it look like there's been a snowfall.

All those years later when Robby was a boy, his father went out into the desert and he brought back three tumbleweeds. They're like an odd sort of plant which is formed into a ball by the wind and they roll around forever in the desert there. He jammed a stick into the ground and then he impaled the tumbleweeds on it in a stack of three and then he sprayed the fake snow on them until he had a snowman for his son, right out there in the desert."

She looked over at Khensa and then at the clock in the corner of the display of the picture viewer. "I can't read your language. What's the date in terms that I might understand."

Khensa thought it over, "December the 23rd, in the human calendar, why?"

"Well, I threw out tons of stuff when I cleaned out the condo where I used to live, but I've still got some Christmas stuff. Why don't we go shopping and I'll try to make you a decent Christmas, if you think that you'd like that?"

Khensa's mouth fell open, "But --"

Debbie waved her off, "Listen, you can't have what you'd really want and I can't seem to be able to do anything right, other than to maybe fuck up the Lord's Prayer. I'm pretty sure that we're at least on the way to being able to figure out if we can live together while we're here. I guess that I'm hoping for your friendship too.

So let's get some things and go to my ship, since it's bigger and I've even got a little fake Christmas tree. We can decorate a little and eat like hogs and try to have a good Christmas, for a couple of girls who've never been to Earth at Christmastime."

"What is the Lord's Pra --"

"Never mind, Khensa," Debbie smiled, "I'm a little afraid that if I elaborate, that I'll jinx my own attempt at doing something right for a change."

"You are not going out again in only that jacket," Khensa said in a voice which brooked no argument, "I have lots of clothing and we are not that different in our sizes." She opened a rather narrow closet and pulled out a jacket.

"Not bad," Debbie grinned as she pulled it on. It was a bomber-style jacket in a kind of pseudo-leather with a fleece type lining and a fake fur ruff collar, "I really like the shoulders, kind of like there's shoulder pads."

"It is only a little stiffer there," Khensa nodded, "On you, I guess that it is like that. For me, it allows me the room if I go on four feet. I have others. If you like it, then it is yours. It looks very good on you."

Debbie began to shake her head, "Oh, I couldn't."

"Yes you could," the Anubian nodded, "and you will. If you will try to make a Christmas out of nothing, then I will do what I must to keep you from freezing."

----------------------------

Debbie was a lot warmer as they walked to her camper carrying the few things that Khensa wanted to bring along. The jacket felt great to her and though she was careful not to show it, she found that the ruff collar carried just a hint of Khensa's scent to her nose and she found after the first few sniffs of it that she really liked it and hoped a little that it never left the garment, though she knew that it likely would.

There was something to it that was as exotic as the girl who'd given it to her, warm and a touch spicy somehow, and taken together with the warmth of the garment, she found that she'd have really liked to have been able to stop for a moment to just jam her nose into the faux fur and inhale deeply.

It surprised them both that they weren't located that far apart, the only border being an invisible line which separated the Transitory parking, such as where Khensa was parked and the longer term Monthly parking, where they were headed now.

"My home," Debbie smiled as they neared her camper craft, "such as it is."

Khensa's eyes ran over the craft and she saw that it had been maintained well and there looked to have been some recent service as well.

"Seals mostly," Debbie nodded when it came up, "I needed to replace them. They weren't bad and they still tested out ok, but you have to replace them when the schedule calls for that if you want to keep up the spaceworthiness ratings, otherwise all you've got is a can to live out of."

Debbie stood a little nervously as Khensa looked around the interior, explaining some of the features if the Anubian looked to be unfamiliar with anything.

"This is very nice, Deborah," Khensa remarked, "and very roomy to one like me, who lives in a craft where I can almost touch both walls from the pilot seat."

"Well it's still going to be a little tight now and then," Debbie replied, "You can go a little nuts in here on a long slow run. Robby and I loved each other to death, but by the time that we got to our vacation spot, I was about ready to leave him."

She turned her head to see Khensa's slightly shocked face and she laughed, "Well, for at least for an hour or two."

She pointed to a few framed photos and Khensa stood admiring the man in them. "He was very attractive," she said quietly.

Debbie nodded as she stepped over to a panel and looked at the state of the craft's on-board water cell. It was separate from the drinking supply and was intended for uses such as dish washing, very light laundry and the shower. As such, it was re-processed over and over, cleaned, filtered, aerated and scrubbed chemically as needed. But there were still small losses over time due to evaporation or spillage. Over time, the losses added up, though very, very slowly.

Debbie made up her mind and looked over at Khensa, "Do you think that you'd want to room here with me? I'm asking now since if you say yes, I'll sell back the washing water in my water cell to the colony and buy a full new load. The filters and systems are in great shape and all, but the water itself has been here since our first vacation, so that's, ... five and a half years. It's only been used by me living here for the past month or so, but still, ..."

Khensa hadn't even considered it, but she was now a little impressed that Debbie would sell off and restock just out of consideration for her feelings. Everyone knew that the water from the washing taps or the shower nozzle was as fresh and clean as the systems could make it, but there was still the thought that the water that you were showering under had been used for the same purpose by the previous occupants over and over before you. Restocking made a bit of a statement.

Khensa smiled and she nodded, "I'd like that very much, I think, now that we seem to be getting to know each other. I do insist that you allow me to pay for the first level filtration packs, however."

Debbie was surprised, "The ones here are still good for, ... I dunno, I'd have to look, but I'm sure that they've got years left."

Khensa shook her head, "That's not it, Deborah. I can see that you're a very clean person and so am I. But we'll need packs at least one rating up from what you've got.

I'm not human."

Debbie tilted her head, "So? I doubt that I'd mind, and I kind of hope that you won't, so -- "

Khensa smiled that smile of hers as she held out her hand, "Touch my arm."

Debbie reached and she looked over, still not getting it.

"Shm'Sha are very clean -- almost fastidiously so," Khensa grinned a little sheepishly, "I'm sure that if you've heard anything about us, then you know that we are considered at least a little -- anal about it. What do you feel?"

Debbie held onto the Anubian's forelimb and ran her thumb along it softly for a moment, "You're warm and you feel really nice to touch, but -- "

Khensa looked down with a smile, "Thank you, but I'm trying to tell you that I have fur.

It's not long, obviously, but though the same dead skin cells as you have on your skin will be washed off and caught by the first level packs, there will also be a little fur now and then as well. My buying the next level up means that the packs won't become clogged. I'd be very embarrassed if that happened over and over because of what I am."